Sports

Scholastic Roundup: Bruce Filosa — a Hall of Famer in the making

June 3, 2022 Andy Furman

Scholastic Roundup logo

Share this:

Bruce Filosa. Director of Recreation, Intramurals at Brooklyn College, was one

happy fella when he learned Gil Hodges will have his uniform number – 14 – retired by the Dodgers, Saturday (June 4th) when the Mets play at Dodger Stadium.

Hodges, who will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in July, helped the Dodgers win World Series titles in Brooklyn and Los Angeles – and he guided the 1969 Miracle Mets to a championship.

“Thanks for letting others know about Gil Hodges,” Filosa wrote. “It brings many of us back to those days. He was truly one of a kind. He was a great player and a great manager, but above all else he was a great dad. That says it all.”

Hodges spent 16 of 18 seasons in the Majors playing for Brooklyn or Los Angeles before finishing his career with two years on the Mets.

Filosa may be on track for a Hall of Fame career as well with the Bulldogs. He began is career at the school in 1981 as an Assistant Football Coach. He served two years in that role being named the team’s Head Coach in 1983 at the age of 29 – making him the youngest head football coach in the NCAA. He led the team from 1983-91.

* * *

Filosa and his wife were featured on the Regis and Kathy Lee TV Show, after his wife won a nation-wide contest for the best recipe submitted by a football coaching family.

In 1992, budget cuts forced the suspension of the college’s Intercollegiate Athletics program. Filosa was named the new Director of Recreation and Intramurals and was given the task of reinventing the college’s programs. In 1994, he was appointed the Director of the new Intercollegiate Athletics program.

He formed three club teams – women’s volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s softball, starting the progression toward the present-day program. The success led to Brooklyn College’s reinstatement as a member of the NCAA on the Division III level.

Under his leadership, the program won CUNYAC championships in men’s basketball (4), women’s soccer (2), women’s basketball (2), women’s cross country, men’s cross country, men’s volleyball and women’s tennis.

* * *

Brooklyn College Recreation is expanding its available facilities to rec basketball and racquetball courts in addition to the currently available fitness center, track and tennis courts. All facilities are open for use Monday through Thursday from noon to 5 pm. BC students must be enrolled for the current academic semester for use, and faculty and staff must have a valid BC Recreations membership.

* * *

LIU women’s sabre fencer Luana Pekelman has scored big in her native Brazil.

Pekelman won a pair of golds last weekend at the Brazilian National Championships in Rio de Janeiro.

A sophomore from Sao Paolo, Pekelman won the senior national championship as well as the under-20-junior national title.

“I’m just trying to make my hard work pay off,” she said in the post-match release.

Said LIU coach Ivan Lee: “Luana works so hard and really wants to be the best in everything she does. She battled some injuries this past season, and we had to shut her down for some time so she can recover and cone back stronger, and that’s just what she did. It’s well deserved.”

* * *

The St. Francis College track and field team landed three honors as part of the Northeast Conference’s end-of-season outdoor track awards.

The Terriers took All-Conference Second Team recognition for their men’s 4×400 relay team – Terell Howard, Daniel Hernandez, Brian Stachn, Makhi Theosmy. The speedy quartet was just eleven hundredths of-a-second off the school record pace in the event at the NEC Outdoor Championships last month, taking second place.

The relay team turned in three top-four finishes during the outdoor season, including a fourth-place finish at the IC4A/ECAC Championships.

Beyonce Blake earned All-Rookie honors after recording the best triple jump mark on the women’s team during this spring. Blake and Tolulope Atolagbe tied at 11:39-m during the Towson Invitational in April which earned them fourth place.

She took sixth-place (11.15-m) at the NEC Championships, the highest of any first-year female student-athlete.

Malachi Aiken, an All-Rookie indoor performer repeated the honor in the outdoor season. Aiken also recorded the Terriers’ best performance in the triple jump during the spring, scoring a 14.97-m jump at the IC4A/ECAC Championships. His fourth-place finish at the final meet of the season made four total top-four finishes for his resume.

The Terriers recorded five total All-Conference honorees between indoor and outdoor seasons.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR